The White Coats Gave Us Report Cards
by strangelyme.strangelyawesome
Summary: No matter what the white coats thought, she still had a heart. The Flock has been put in a real school by the white coats, and in return is a new power: healing. Unhappy, she and Total set out to save the brainwashed Flock. Lost Flock, Healing Curse. FAX
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters (Maximum Ride - James Patterson). The plot is mine as far as I know.**

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Max POV-

I twisted the cap on the table. Nearing the end of its swirls, it hung for a moment, and then spun lopsidedly once more. The cap fell. My tears reached the table before the plastic stopped trembling.

Fang is gone, and Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel. My friends. My family. My Flock.

A hand slammed on the table, crushing the cap and sending a drop of water flying across the table. Pain lanced up my arm, and I realized the body part was mine. I flipped my hand, fingers spread wide. Red dribbled into the pool of salty water on the grainy wood surface, blood mingling with tears.

I pulled on the shard of plastic wedged into my skin. Upon pulling it out, I realized that flakes of paint had peeled off and into my body.

Too late to do anything about it. Glancing at the clock for a second, I watched the blood stop flowing, the skin crawl back into place, and the puckered redness diminish.

Looking closer I could see dancing color underneath my skin. It disappeared.

Suddenly I felt sick. The people who had taken my Flock would pay for my loved ones, and pay for the loss of my own body. This even more incredible healing was not a fair trade for them.

No matter what the white coats thought, I still had a heart.

Total and I gathered ourselves at the entrance to the bar, and together we walked out. Together we would fight for unity. I could only hope the white coats hadn't already killed the Flock.

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	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: MR is not by any means mine. Plot is mine, so hands off.**

**My first fan fic, and sorry if any characters seem OOC. **

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Nudge POV

"_Max, Max, wherever you are, find us and have this cage ajar. Open it up and let us out, let us heave a great big shout… For Max! Always Max! Rule one, the number one is Max! Max…_"

"Nice Nudge, keep it up," Gazzy encouraged. "Maybe we can knock out the white coats with your singing."

I growled. How dare he! I wasn't even singing loudly, just a mutter to myself to pass the time.

And oh, sure, he should be the one to talk. He had already let out numerous treats for the white coats, his favorite little surprises that had hardly aided the Flock.

The one time the white coat was coming in with food – smelled delicious – and Gazzy made him dash out of the room in a matter of seconds. The man hadn't even bothered to reach their cages with the warm meals, and let the nourishment pour out across the tiled floor.

Fang and Angel produced a group effort to grab a few slices of meat, and had divided the substance equally to everyone else. No thanks to Gazzy.

Gazzy smirked at me, seeing how his insult had gone straight home. Irked, I taunted him, using the lost food incident as a base. Soon we had a full-fledged argument going, complete with "Yes, you did!"s and "No, you didn't!"s.

"Guys, this is exactly what they want us to do! Fight! Don't you see where this is getting us?" Angel cried out, trying to pat Iggy's rumpled feathers. I saw how pained his face was, how distressed the yells made him.

I stayed silent, and Gazzy fell into my mindset. Shame filled me. How would we survive until Max got us if we couldn't last more than a few minutes?

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**The review button is so nice, so inviting... Mine goes 'clicky clicky' when I press it. What about yours? (Hint, hint, REVIEW!!!)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I'll be truthful and say I do not own Maximum Ride. Nor do I own Total. But I make things happen to them.**

**And many thanks to Jenny Telrio for giving me my first review ever! (So proud, *sniff*)**

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Max POV:

"Mumph," Total said around his hamburger.

"Don't speak with your mouth full," I reprimanded the dog. "And don't call attention to yourself. If someone hears something somehow and looks up they might notice a dog eating human food, which would raise quite a bit of suspicion."

Total managed a sort of dog shrug. "Animals can eat human food, no problem. What's wrong with it?"

"Excuse me, I meant the fact you're holding the burger in your paws. While sitting up."

"Well then, how about excusing _me_ for being naturally talented?"

I was certain I had visibly paled. "Total, it's not natural. We aren't natural. The Flock. That's why the Flock is gone. Don't you get it?"

The black Scottie grunted and slowly settled on the ground. He nuzzled around his food, lifting up the bread to sniff underneath. "Smells good," he commented before digging in again.

My mind recalled Nudge asking me whether or not I knew the answers to a few questions regarding the Flock, "seeing as how I was leader and all". Even though Nudge wasn't here, I might as well take advantage of the moment I had with Total.

"Hey, Total? How do you hold stuff in your paws, anyway? Do you have thumbs or something hidden under your fur or what? I saw you can even hold cards."

Total looked at me in what I could only decipher to be a decisively superior look.

"No thumbs. My fur just pretty much molds around objects, know what I mean? No, never mind, you probably don't…"

My head jerked up. "Like sensors, almost?"

"Yeah. Like those."

Now I was positively freaked out. "Total, your paw, please."

He pressed a furry paw into my outstretched hand, and gave me a toothy grin. "Put your finger in the middle and look. It's cool."

I did as was instructed while taking deep relaxing breaths. My finger tingled. Total's fur bent and waved towards the connection, and separate tufts caressed my skin. After a moment the closest hairs molded to my finger, holding me firmly.

All I could think was, _Wow, Total's got a strong grip._

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**Now review like good little people, that's right! (I'm pretending to talk to a crowd if you haven't noticed. I like to flatter myself in some ways.) And should I make chapters longer?**


	4. School: Better or Worse?

**Disclaimer: I don't own MR, but I wish. A girl can dream, right? And I think that I do own the lines of the song Nudge sings, because I wrote it down in a burst of inspiration. I hope no one else owns it.**

**And sorry for taking a while, I wrote 3 other possible chapter 4 s, but I just chose this one. **

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Nudge POV

"Dance the night away, feel the heat in the air. Dance the night away, sing the praises from the ground!"

"Nudge, enough with the endless singing, you're busting my head," Iggy complained.

Two days, no sign of Max, no white coats coming in except for the tests yesterday and the food every few hours. I was tired – in the boring sense, not the physical sense.

_Maybe she won't come, maybe this is a test of hers, maybe she is captured too, maybe she found clones of us, maybe we aren't real, maybe this was all a dream. At least we don't fight much, just a few clashes every couple of hours._

A buzzer sound interrupted my thoughts. A squeaky voice and static filled the room.

*_Buzz_* "You are – _fizz_ – about to be – _fizz_ – prepared for a test, no – _fizz _– resisting, please." *_Buzz_*

We were confused, no denying it. Since when did they ask us to be submissive? At the least they ignore us, at most they force us.

Of course, this wasn't our normal stay at the School. The last times we happened to be here they starved us and the tests were noticeably harsher. The past rooms had other caged hybrids too.

We were alone, five cages in different sizes, facing each other in a wide semicircle. Metal and whiteness outlined our surroundings. A bright light shone straight down between us, strong enough to flood the room in a pearly glare.

In a murmur, I crooned, "Hardly feel the shadows casting light upon my sway. Eyes are glowing, lips are syncing, ears are filled with sound."

_**The Flock is growing angrier, Nudge,**_ Angel's mental voice spoke.

_**Fine enough by me,**_ I retorted, but I stopped anyway.

A white coat appeared behind me, pushing a cart. "How do you all like school?"

I couldn't understand what he meant. The testing thing, had he said 'the School'? Or a thing that could be connected to teachers and report cards?

"Well, we hope you like it because that's were you all are headed. To a normal, human school, filled with pupils and teachers, where we will examine your mingling habits for a year or so. Your leader might arrive also."

Oh god, it's school time. And I'm going to be stuck there. And I can't tell if it's better or worse than my present situation.

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	5. Looking and Hiding

**Thanks to Lollypop 8 for noticing I wrote Chap. 3 in Max's POV when I said I did Total's POV. Oops!**

**Disclaimer: This makes me more depressed each time. So no, I don't own MR. Why? Oh, whhyyyyyy?! *sob* OK, I'm good now.**

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Max POV

Wind whistled through my hair as my super speed took charge. I had been pestering Total for a while, but he wouldn't give in. No matter that my tactics kept changing, he just sat like a heavy, sarcastic mutt in my arms.

Okay, I'll admit that 'like' wouldn't work in that sentence. He _is_ a heavy, sarcastic mutt.

"So, can your magical fur do any other cool tricks that I haven't heard of yet?" I pressed Total.

"Hm, nope," he quipped. "Try asking any more ways and I'll tell you I can turn cobalt blue."

I eyed him, then took his body out from under my arm and held him away from me. Total glanced down, yelped, and squirmed.

Rolling my eyes, I reminded him, "Dancing around gets you no where. I'll keep questioning you until you either reveal all your secrets or develop new gifts."

"You're evil, terrible!" Total squeaked. I raised an eyebrow.

The dog blinked lazily. "I meant, you're evil, terrible, your majesty."

_I'll put your powers down as sensor fur and immunity from deadly glares,_ I thought to myself.

My train of thought wandered through pastures of frolicking doubts and nagging memories. I suddenly felt in need of reassurance.

"Total? You do think they're at the School, right?"

"Probably. Do you have a plan on how to get in?"

Even though this phrase was growing old, I had to declare, "There's always a plan."

Nudge POV

"What's going to stop us from busting out of that school?"

"Nudge, use logic," Iggy pretty much growled.

Fang explained, "White coats might make up most of the staff, erasers and experiments or something a percentage of the student body. We might get loaded with trackers. Heavily guarded. The works."

_Fang talks! The apocalypse is nigh! _

Angel smiled, possibly at my mental tone. Her sweet and innocent voice drifted through the different room we were placed in. "What does an apocalypse mean?"

Iggy grinned. "The end of the world. Where did you hear that?"

"Oh, no where. I just remembered it."

_**Well, you're a good liar, **_I told her.

_**I learn from the best,**_ the reply came. I wondered who the best was.

"White coats are outside. I can hear their thoughts. They are going to gas us and brainwash us into thinking Fang is the leader and we are working for them to catch a hybrid – Max – that failed us all. So we hate her. And she'll try coming to the school but there will be clones of us thinking the exact same things as us. And we will work with the other us to get Max alone and then trap her," Angel stunned us. Dropping bombshells sometimes worse than Iggy's, Angel managed to knock our senses down again.

The silence was fierce.

The silence was long.

The silence was broken by hissing steam.

Angel quickly formulated a plan. "All our memories are now locked in caches in our brains. Actions and thoughts familiar from the past will unlock them. Fang, your feelings for Max or your unemotional-ness. Iggy, cooking and explosions. Nudge, chattering – but there is some minimum I can't define – and fashion – again with a minimum. Gazzy, atomic farts and explosions also. Me, Max's thoughts and Total. Sorry about the minimums, Nudge, with more general topics a more strict key is used."

_Who's the best? Max? When did she lie? Or who? Who's lieing?_

_Where did Angel get this locking power? Has she practiced on us before?_

_Where's Max? Did the white coats already find her? Is she captured? Is she looking?_

_Will I still talk a lot? About what? How will others react to me?_

_Will I still be me? _

_Will I ever remember me?_


	6. Maximum Airlines

**DISCLAIMER: Yada yada yada, MR not mine, blah blah blah. Doesn't DISCLAIMER sound criminal-like (in an anti)? Or is that just me. Just me, probably. Or maybe I just don't make sense.**

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Max POV

"And to our far, far, far left is a hideous building titled 'the School'. Thank you for flying with Maximum Airlines, where your speed and safety is first and your comfort is last. We are forced to hope you had a Maximum Ride!" Total announced from the crook of my arm.

My right wing dipped and I gently spiraled to the ground, executing a perfect landing.

"We have arrived safely. The nonexistent seatbelt signs are now turned off. Please exit the plane without stampeding over and crushing anyone and collect your luggage in the appointed terminal. If you can't find your luggage it's probably lost and will never be retrieved again. May you never fly again with Maximum Airlines!"

"Total, get it done with. You're worse than Nudge."

"Why, thank you."

"Not a compliment."

"Too bad, Maximum Ride."

"Total, you didn't suddenly develop an Eraser voice, did you?"

"No, why did you ask? Don't tell me you haven't developed Gazzy's ability…"

"I haven't."

"Then there is an Eraser behind us."

"I was afraid of that."

"He just told you 'too bad'."

"Yes."

"He called you Maximum Ride."

"I know, Total."

"Max? I'm scared."

"Me too," I said, and I turned and kicked the Eraser in the gut. He crumbled to the ground.

Five more took his place.

Total took this moment to remind me, "You know, you still haven't told me your master plan."

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**OK, I'm seriously not too good at cliffies. Mine are all cliche or something like that. Very boring. Flat. Possibly anti-climatic.**

**Again, am I making sense?**


	7. Mangy Mutts and Problematic Plans

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Sorry. That means I can't give it away to anyone either.**

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"You evil dogs! Mutts, I say! Stay away you foul smelling sons of test tubes!"

"Ehm, Total."

"Sorry, I got a bit carried away. But I taught them a lesson, at least."

"You weren't even the one fighting! How can you say that?"

"Because I am a full canine mutt and still I can turn my nose up in the air and look down on them. That lesson, Max. That they are incredibly despicable to both animal classifications they are part of."

"Total, the Flock is the same way. You too are a hybrid."

"Yeah, but I'm cute and cuddly. And Angel likes me, so there."

"I like you too."

"Sure, sure."

"I do… sometimes."

Total glanced at me. "Hey, Max, I guess I sometimes like you too."

"Gee, thanks."

"No, really. Like when you were just saving my hide back there with those mangy mutts."

A silent pause as we shared the Kodak moment.

"OK, now what. The plan of before? What was it?"

"Er, no plan."

"Max, Max, what am I supposed to do with you?"

"Hey! Watch out, mister! I'm the one lugging your shaggy behind around!"

"All those times. You lied."

"Only sort of."

"Uh-huh."

"I managed to come up with plans, didn't I?"

"Fine. You pulled it off well enough."

"Thank you."

"Why did you tell me now, Max?"

"Because I'm not sure if I'll live through this. We might both die. We got close to death before. And now we have no new tricks, no nothing, except me and my healing and you and your fur. And the white coats know about those because they gave us them. So the white coats are ready for us, and the Flock is probably in isolation tanks. Weak when they get out. Explain how we are going to live through that."

"Gosh, pessimistic much? We did it before."

"That's just it, Total! They know what we can do!"

"Hold it. They gave you healing power stuff when they last caught you, then let you go and kept the rest. What's the reason behind that? Either they want you to come back, and it's a test. No worry about failing there, then. Or they don't want you back and don't expect you back, the power was a bribe to get you out and away for a long time."

"I can see missing pieces in your logic."

"Well, Max, it's the last thing we've got."

"Well, Total, I guess we'll have to see if we can make it through."

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**Again** **with the silly cliffies. Oops.**


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